Some interesting and inspiring stories came out in the news this week:
Former “slaves” build Brazil World Cup stadium (Reuters)
This is a beautiful story about a Brazilian anti-slavery program which places formerly enslaved laborers into legitimate jobs—while providing education so they can have marketable skills. One of the stadiums to be used for the world cup in 2014 is being built by 25 workers in this program:
More than 2,600 people were “rescued” from slave labor in 2010, the labor ministry says. Brazil’s government has made the problem a top priority over the past decade, and expanded the definition of slavery in 2003 to include both forced labor and degrading working conditions – a broader definition than many countries, says the International Labor Organization.
Government programs such as the one that placed the workers at the Cuiaba stadium, which included six months of on-site training, are critical to ensuring that slavery ultimately disappears for good in Brazil, says Valdiney Arruda, the superintendent at the labor ministry in Mato Grosso state.
“The biggest challenge is often to prove to these people that they are capable” of working dignified jobs, Arruda said. “How do you leave behind a whole lifetime in just six months? … It’s not easy, but they’re doing it.”
Find out more about the work of Free the Slaves’ frontline partner in Brazil.
An Exhibition on Modern Slavery Opens at Lincoln’s Cottage in DC
On February 17 (last Friday), Lincoln’s Cottage opened an exhibition on modern-day slavery. The show, titled Can You Walk Away? is produced in partnership with Polaris Project, and features filmed interviews with slavery survivors, and offers educational resources. The Lincoln Cottage shop is also now selling Fair Trade products. The show was conceived as a way to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which legally ended slavery in the U.S.The exhibition is on view until August 2013.
Free the Slaves works with Polaris Project through the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking—a group made up of U.S.-based anti-slavery nonprofits. We also collaborate with Polaris Project through mtvU’s “Against Our Will” campaign, which raises awareness about modern-slavery.
Yesterday members of Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and US SIF submitted a letter on behalf of 80 institutional investors, research and investment firms, to Rep. John Boehner (Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives) and Rep. Eric Cantor (Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives) seeking support on the Business Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act (HR 2759). HR 2759 requires companies that make over 100 million annually to include in their yearly report, actions being taken to identify and address issues of slavery. The letter strongly encourages the Republican House Leadership to “support investors, companies, workers and consumers by moving this important legislation forward in an expeditious manner.”
Read the letter here
Free the Slaves co-founder Kevin Bales was on CNN last Friday. He was interviewed by Richard Quest about the state of slavery in the cocoa industry. Just over 10 years ago, in September 2001, Free the Slaves helped broker the historic Harkin-Engel Protocol.
Otherwise known as the “Cocoa Protocol,” the agreement marked the first time in the 250-year history of the anti-slavery movement that a global industry took responsibility for slavery in its supply chain. Chocolate companies, several NGOs, international labor organizations, Senator Harkin, Representative Engel, and the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire all signed on.
The agreement was inspired by a growing awareness of slavery and other human rights abuses on the cocoa farms of West Africa. Free the Slaves helped shed light on these abuses in the Peabody award-winning documentary, “Slavery: A Global Investigation” which aired in 2001.
In the CNN interview above, Kevin Bales reflects on what has happened in the 10 years since the protocol was signed:
“I was proud to sign it and not least because there is something historic about an entire industry coming together to pool their funds to address the issue of child slavery and adult slavery in cocoa… But I am disappointed. To a large part it’s a resource question. It’s about the fact that while several million dollars a year are moving from the chocolate industry into work on the ground in West Africa, it’s simply not enough to meet the size of the problem… I believe that any time anyone happens to be in slavery, that’s a serious problem.”
Bales added that, while it is important to continue to pressure the chocolate industry to keep their supply chains free of slavery, there are other cocoa-using industries—like cosmetics and food manufacturers—that have not “taken part in dealing with the problem in their source material.”
These children are standing just down the hill from a mine in eastern DRC. They are vulnerable to slavery.
The newest front in fighting slavery involves educating consumers that many everyday products are tainted by slavery. Sometimes it’s sweatshop slavery where products are made. Other times, slaves are forced to harvest or mine raw materials. America’s most influential business news organization, The Wall Street Journal, has been looking into the connection between slavery and gold. Here’s the article from their MarketWatch webpage. It features Free the Slaves Director of Programs Karen Stauss, who is urging Congress and companies to get the slavery out of products in American stores.
Speaking about children who end up in slavery, Karen says:
“It’s important to understand the motivations of the children, but also for governments, civil society and companies to take responsibility for protecting them and ensuring they have viable alternatives… It may feel like a necessity for the children under the present circumstances, but their willingness to literally risk their lives to do this work does not mean that we can accept it on their behalf as well. There is a duty of care.”
Read the rest of the article here.
Also, check out the Free the Slaves mini documentary about slavery in Congo mines below. To learn more about our work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, go to our website here.
Sofia, a former victim of sex trafficking. Photo courtesy of Nicole Bengiveno, New York Times.
Some of them run away. Some of them simply have nowhere to go.
But the lives of prostitutes—often coerced into sex slavery—are usually misunderstood.
Trafficking is considered the third largest industry for organized crime, generating billions of dollars annually.
Here’s a news roundup of some recent news stories about sex trafficking:
New York Times: “Shining Light on the Role of Drivers in Prostitution” by Christine Haughney:
Sofia, a sweet-voiced and cherubic 24-year-old, was one of the lucky ones: She managed to escape much of the suffering shared by the millions of sex workers trafficked throughout the world, and even saw two of her traffickers forced out of the country and back to Mexico.
But the young woman said she still feels that complete justice has eluded her, because the drivers who ferried her from john to john, her de facto bosses, remain at large.
Deseret News: “Stolen Innocence: The battle against modern-day slavery in the US” by Elizabeth Stuart:
ATLANTA — Maybe it was the defiant glint in her eye. Maybe it was the way she dragged her feet on the way to join the other underage girls in tube tops and 8-inch heels hawking their bodies in a bad part of Atlanta. Keisha Head wasn’t sure. But somehow Sir Charles always knew when she was considering trying to escape.
“You better not be thinkin’ ’bout leaving,” the pimp would say. “You know what’s gonna happen.”
CBS News: “Captive sex slave for 10 years tells her story” by CBS News:
For 10 years, Tanya Kach, of McKeesport, Pa., was held as a sex slave under her abductor’s complete control. Now, she’s come out to tell her amazing survival story.
In 1996, Kach was a 14-year-old girl carrying around grown-up problems. Her parents were splitting up. And, like most girls that age, adjusting to the teenage years was tough.
A child laborer carries a basket of fair-trade organic cotton in Burkina Fatso. Photo courtesy of Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Recent news that cotton used by Victoria’s Secret to sew women’s lingerie may have been harvested by slaves has sparked a broader debate about how deep companies should go into policing their supply chains. It’s also prompting discussion in Washington about strengthening slavery disclosure rules for businesses. The story below includes comments from Free the Slaves Director of Programs Karen Stauss, a key proponent of stronger disclosure requirements.
Child Labor for Victoria’s Secret Cotton Examined By U.S.
U.S. investigators are conducting a preliminary inquiry into forced child labor used in an organic and fair-trade cotton program that supplies the American lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret, a federal law enforcement official confirmed this week.
Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, Limited Brands (LTD) Inc., said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that it continues “to take this matter very seriously as we do not tolerate child labor.” Those practices were disclosed in a Dec. 15 Bloomberg News report about the program the company buys from in Burkina Faso. Fairtrade International, the Bonn-based organization that certified the cotton, said in a statement last week that it has“prioritised further training on child labour and child protection for its members” beginning in early 2012.
Here’s a surprising story that was in the news this week: Atlanta, Georgia. Third graders were presented with a math assignment with questions about slavery. Reports say that these questions were an attempt to “integrate social studies and math lessons.” But the result seems to be more offensive than educational. For instance, one assignment question was literally: “Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” The NAACP is calling for the teachers to be fired. The school district spokesperson says they are “looking at what human resources actions may be taken.”
Read more about this here and here!
Ambassador Barrie Walkley delivering remarks at the US consulate in Juba, days before South Sudan's Independence Day.
Free the Slaves and our frontline partners in the DRC have found multiple forms of slavery in and around mining areas of eastern Congo. We in the U.S. are not separated from these human rights abuses, because there is evidence that minerals from Congo mines end up in the supply chains of cell phones, batteries and laptops—products we use everyday.
Through slavery at gunpoint, debt bondage, peonage, sexual slavery, and child soldiering, the “Three Ts” (tin, tungsten, tantalum) and gold are mined and smuggled into the global trade in metals. Because U.S. consumers and businesses are economically connected to slavery in Congo, we must be accountable. That’s why Free the Slaves worked with several other NGOs to call for the U.S. government to appoint a special envoy to the Africa Great Lakes region.
Uniting with representatives from affected industries, NGOs, human rights organizations, and socially responsible investor groups, we have called upon the Department of State to prioritize diplomatic efforts required under the Conflict Minerals Act and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act.
We are pleased to announce that last Wednesday, the White House appointed Ambassador Barrie Walkley as the Department of State’s new Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, which includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“If given sufficient authority and autonomy, Ambassador Walkley could be the needed shot in the arm for the administration’s efforts to make progress on the conflict minerals trade, dismantling the LRA, and tackling justice and security sector reform in Congo,” said John C. Bradshaw, executive director of Enough Project.
Free the Slaves will be watching closely with encouragement and hope for real action to take place in the DRC. We believe that if slavery can be eradicated where it is most entrenched, it can be eradicated everywhere.
Cases of slave labor have been found in the production of charcoal in Brazil. Workers toil in unbearably hot, smoky and dangerous conditions with no protective gear.
Today, December 2nd, is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery- marking the anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) in 1949.
This day calls for the awareness and eradication of modern-day slavery, including child labor, trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and the use of children in armed conflict.
It also comes on the heels of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed by the Human Rights Council earlier this year.
This implementation of the United Nations “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” framework provides businesses guiding principles on how to respect fundamental human rights.
“To eradicate contemporary forms of slavery, we need new strategies and measures that can unite all actors. While Governments bear the primary responsibility, the private sector has an integral role to play. Earlier this year, the Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, outlining how states and businesses should implement the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework. I welcome the widespread support it has received from the business sector,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his Message for the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
For the past several weeks, one of the world’s major 24-hour news channels, Al Jazeera English, has been airing investigative documentaries on modern-day slavery. The network wraps-up its series on Thanksgiving Day with a town-hall debate on whether enough is being done to by governments and others to end slavery forever.
The debate features Free the Slaves Co-founder Kevin Bales. The debate airs on November 24th at 5:30 p.m. ET. Several of the documentaries in the Al Jazeera series feature Kevin too!
Al Jazeera isn’t available on many cable systems in the U.S., but you can watch it stream live. You can catch up on the channel’s slavery documentaries on their special slavery webpage. Globally, Al Jazeera English says it reaches more than 220 million households in over 100 countries. Here’s a promo for the debate:
